The term ‘journaling’ refers to writing for your own sake. You can journal anything from ‘about your day’ to ‘the things you are grateful for.’ There are evidently numerous benefits of this habit on one’s lifestyle and mental health. Bestowing you with improved sleep is one of them.
You may find it difficult to draw a line between writing and sleeping, but writing before bedtime has a significant impact on the quality of your sleep. While there are no specific guidelines on how to write a journal, you still have to learn how to write and express your thoughts and feelings. To get help in writing or an example to refer to, take a look at works of professional writers. This way, you’ll learn to interpret your inner world into words clearly and get the most out of journaling. In this article, we will explore the connection between sleep and journaling, its benefits, and the different ways to approach this technique for your well-being.
How Journaling Stimulates Peaceful Sleep?
Most often, when you hit the sack, your body desires rest, but your mind races through diverse thoughts and keeps you from getting asleep. Almost every person suffers from this sleeplessness once in a while. Though, some people fight this trouble every day.
If you are surrounded by negative and stressful distractions, it may become difficult for you to even focus on your assignments. You can opt for the write my essay online service and take time to work on your well-being.
Studies show that when you journal before sleeping, you tend to have quality sleep. Writing on paper gives your thoughts a direction and prevents your mind from beating a dead horse. The cloud of stress, negativity, and overthinking – all stop growing bigger once you start journaling about anything you like.
When you start to put down things in your diary, you give your brain a break. It rather focuses on the task at hand – this activity functions as an exercise for your brain muscles.
Consequently, your brain reaches a higher level of calmness, and it becomes easy for you to fall asleep. Once you start practicing this routine, you will notice that you are able to get more restful sleep.
What Can You Write About Before Going to Bed?
While there are many things a person can decide to put in their journal to clear that storm of tormenting rumination, we have some suggestions that have been proven best for this exercise.
1. Prepare a To-Do List for the Next Day
How often, when you envisage your tasks for the coming day, instead of a clear picture, you get lost in the blurred cluster of countless chores? You would rather leave the task for the day to come, right?
But in fact, this habit only adds to your procrastination and leaves you worrying about pending pieces of work throughout the day. At night, along with exhausting anticipation, you start to stress about so many things you have to finish tomorrow. It makes sleeping even more difficult.
So, if you take 5-10 minutes to note down all the tasks in your journal and list them based on their priority, you clear your mind of a lot of nuisances. You can even create separate lists, like one for your domestic chores and one for your studies. The latter might have things on it like attending a class, posting on an online discussion board, looking for EssayPro review on NoCramming, having a lesson with a tutor, etc. This eventually helps you doze off quickly and easily.
2. Write Positive Incidents from Your Day
The ability to see the silver linings in the darkest clouds helps you sail through the toughest storms. When your senses prepare to keep you awake, you must open your diary and pen down the positive events from your day.
It can be little things like having your favorite ice cream or hanging with your friends after class. Reflecting on the good things about your day will help you overcome negativity and fill your senses with peace. Writing it down makes it even easier.
3. Things You Are Grateful For
It’s not a new concept for many. We all know the power of gratitude and have experienced it at least once. The more you feel grateful for the things and blessings you have, the more you are gifted with it by the Universe. Yes, cheers to you if you believe in the law of attraction.
The best way to fill your heart with contentment is to write about the things that you feel thankful for. You can start counting with your ability to see, hear, and speak and move on to other things.
You can pick 10 things to write every day and contemplate on them. This way, you will feel a sense of joy and gratitude. In turn, you will be able to drift off into a peaceful snooze.
4. Pep Up Yourself with Some Words of Wisdom
If none of the above things is your cup of tea, you can try writing your favorite quotes and poems that lift your spirit. It is one of the best psychological tools for optimism.
The lines in that book you underlined, or that saying of a famous person that you love revisiting, can tame down your stress. You can choose to write anything in your journal that fills you with positivity.
Benefits of Journaling
You might wonder why to write all of these things when you can simply think about them. But the truth is writing is better than just thinking because honestly, if you had control over your thoughts, you would never have sunk in the neverending pool of overthinking.
When you prepare yourself to write, you start to organize the flow of your thoughts naturally. The more your thoughts are organized, the clearer your mind will be. And when you pour out your heart on the paper, you offload so many worries from your brain. With this, dozing off into a deep sleep becomes an undemanding task for you.
Over time, when you develop a habit of journaling before bedtime, your brain recognizes it as a ritual related to sleeping and sends signals to your body. Hence, you subconsciously get ready for a peaceful slumber.
Conclusion
Nurturing good habits takes time and effort. We tend to resist a change in our routine, and that makes it more difficult. However, once you will pump up your willpower and force yourself to start journaling, you will be able to unfold its benefits. A good night’s sleep is a great reward for journaling for only about 15 minutes.
If you’ve been keeping a sleep journal for a while now, and still haven’t seen positive results, you may want to consider the next step: having a sleep study. If you live in Alaska and want to see if a sleep study is right for you, contact The Alaska Sleep Clinic by clicking the link below for a free 10-minute phone call with a sleep educator who can help determine if a sleep study is necessary or if a consultation with our sleep specialist needs to be scheduled.
